To the editor:

The “Back to School” editorial (Journal-World, Aug. 13) gave some unfortunate advice. While I appreciate the positive tone of the editorial, it stated, “We hope Lawrence schools will fly above the politics and continue to provide the outstanding educational opportunity for which they are known. We also urge the community to support local schools through volunteering and donations either to individual schools or through the effective Lawrence Schools Foundation.”

Kansas schools and families continue to do the best they can under the current circumstances, but to tell them to fly above the politics and to just roll up their sleeves and volunteer more and fund more on their own is to tell them to proceed on a path that got us into our current situation. Kansas school administrators, teachers and parents need to get engaged politically, exercise our civic duty and vote and hold our legislators accountable on the promises they make while campaigning.

To ignore the political side of these issues is to wash our hands of the processes that determine funding levels and the priority placed upon protecting Kansas public education. Volunteering, hiring tutors, raising funds in school auctions, etc., for basic needs that ought to be provided by the state can only take us so far. Kansans need to continue doing those things, but they also need to be politically engaged.